Thrones symbolize power and conquest. At the beginning of the play, Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy are embroiled in a bitter dispute over their respective claims to the Egyptian throne—that is, over which of them is the legitimate ruler of Egypt. Shaw repeatedly inserts throne imagery into the play to show who has and does not have power. At the beginning of the play, Ptolemy has banished Cleopatra from Alexandria. Not only does Cleopatra’s banishment physically remove her from the royal palace, but it also unseats her from her physical throne within the palace, reflecting the loss of power she has suffered due to her banishment. When Caesar accompanies Cleopatra back to Alexandria after promising to help her reclaim her rule over Egypt, he immediately seats himself on Cleopatra’s throne. Caesar’s takeover of Cleopatra’s physical throne signifies to the Roman soldiers who enter the throne room that it is he—not Cleopatra—who rules Egypt. Caesar’s decision to take Cleopatra’s place on the throne visually conveys his power as a bold, capable leader. It also foreshadows Rome’s eventual defeat of the Egyptian army and takeover of Alexandria.
Another critical moment occurs later in Act II, when Rufio offers a bronze tripod with a stick of incense burning on its seat to Caesar to sit down on when no other seats are available in the throne room. Rufio either ignorantly or intentionally ignores that the tripod had been resting before an image of Ra, arguably the most important deity in the ancient Egyptian religion. He picks up the stool and carelessly disposes of the incense. In so doing, he symbolically devalues Egyptian culture to serve Caesar, Egypt’s Roman conqueror. Caesar, like Rufio, doesn’t think twice about defacing an artifact of religious significance to the Egyptians and sits down on the tripod, eliciting audible gasps from the Egyptian court. Rufio and Caesar’s careless treatment of the tripod symbolizes Rome’s disregard for Egyptian culture. On a broader level, it criticizes the power of a colonizing force like Rome (or, in Shaw’s contemporary society, the British Empire) to devalue and erase the cultures of the places they colonize.
Thrones Quotes in Caesar and Cleopatra
Of course not: I am the Queen; and I shall live in the palace at Alexandria when I have killed my brother, who drove me out of it. When I am old enough I shall do just what I like. I shall be able to poison the slaves and see them wriggle, and pretend to Ftatateeta that she is going to be put into the fiery furnace.
Ptolemy: Yes—the gods would not suffer—not suffer—[He stops; then, crestfallen] I forgot what the gods would not suffer.
THEODOTUS: Let Pothinus, the King’s guardian, speak for the King.
POTHINUS [suppressing his impatience with difficulty] The King wishes to say that the gods would not suffer the impiety of his sister to go unpunished.
POTHINUS. From her own lips I have heard it. You are to be her catspaw: you are to tear the crown from her brother's head and set it on her own, delivering us all into her hand—delivering yourself also. And then Caesar can return to Rome, or depart through the gate of death, which is nearer and surer.
CAESAR (calmly). Well, my friend; and is not this very natural?
POTHINUS (astonished). Natural! Then you do not resent treachery?
CAESAR. Resent! O thou foolish Egyptian, what have I to do with resentment? Do I resent the wind when it chills me, or the night when it makes me stumble in the darkness? Shall I resent youth when it turns from age, and ambition when it turns from servitude? To tell me such a story as this is but to tell me that the sun will rise to-morrow.
CAESAR. If one man in all the world can be found, now or forever, to know that you did wrong, that man will have either to conquer the world as I have, or be crucified by it. […] These knockers at your gate are also believers in vengeance and in stabbing. You have slain their leader: it is right that they shall slay you. […] then in the name of that right (He emphasizes the word with great scorn.) shall I not slay them for murdering their Queen, and be slain in my turn by their countrymen as the invader of their fatherland? Can Rome do less than slay these slayers too, to show the world how Rome avenges her sons and her honor? And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand. […]
Thrones Symbol Timeline in Caesar and Cleopatra
